Ok the bad news is solar tubes are susceptible to oxidization especially when near a saltwater tank. So the par levels are likely to drop. But depending on how much, I could always ramp up an led. I don't know if this issue still occurs in the new models.

Yea just wondered if someone local was using them since they are location specific based on amount of sunlight we get here in Austin. Also wanted to see if anyone already got par readings from a tank with solar tubes. I don't mind less blue light and I can always ramp the k up with leds.

So I have been out of the hobby for a year but I now live in a house instead of an apartment. I was thinking about setting up a tank with Solar Tube lighting with supplemental LEDs. I was wondering if anyone is currently running a tank with this form of lighting? I would be using a 12" solar tube over a 45 or 60gallon cube tank. Any advice or info would be appreciated.

Few weeks ago I bought a nice acro from aquadome. It looks like a milleopora spathulata. I had it half way up the tank under a 6 bulb t5 fixture. After a week the tips of all the coralites started to bleach. I moved it to a shaded spot on the sandbed and it recovered in a couple days. I kept it on the sand bed but moved it out of the shade and it started to bleach again. I have never seen this type of acro so sensitive to light. I figured after 3 weeks it would have adjusted by now. Anybody run into this before?

Another link. http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsegroupspecies.php?GroupID=235
If not a parasite, I'm guessing removing it from tank and water change while it was weakened could have been the cause.

So I was inspecting the clam for parasites and found a worm on the bottom near the foot. It's head is somewhat clear/white and the body is black and segmented. It was in a tube made of crushed coral. Here's a couple pics.
Here's a link of what I think it is. Under section "Worms With Two Tentacles" http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/
Doesn't seem like the culprit but who knows.

So nothing new has been added or done to my tank. Came home the other day to my maxima clam spawning. Cool right? Then I researched if there was anything you needed to do if this happens. In a small system it's not a good thing, so i placed the clam in a bucket of tank water so that it could finish spawning. I added a bubbler so that oxygen levels wouldn't drop from the die off of the gametes. Yesterday I did a 25% water change. This morning I find my clam pretty much dead. I'm not sure if the clam was on the way out before the spawning or if the spawning caused it to die. I have had really good success with clams so this was surprising. Water tests check out fine and my temperature only fluctuates between 78 and 80 everyday. I do have 2 other small maximas in the tank and they are fine. I'll check for internal parasites later.
http://youtu.be/H13Og0mLAKY

It's getting close to the 3 year mark and a lots happened since the last update. For a few months almost every acro started to bleach, or bleached completely. I narrowed it down to alk swings, so I bought a doser. I was amazed at how much I had to dose and I assumed it was because of my 12" squamosa. I decided to sell it and my alk dosing went from about 80 ml a day to 10 ml. Everything is finally starting to come back and grow again.